


Mercy

by madsshine



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Killjoys, Brothers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 03:48:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madsshine/pseuds/madsshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Out of the way, Poison. Let me look at him.” Jet Star’s face is grim as he checks Kid over. “They got you pretty bad, huh?”</p>
<p>When Kobra Kid is struck down and suffering, Party Poison is faced with an impossible task.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mercy

It happens so fast. One second it seems like they have a good chance, like maybe they’ll win this. The next, Kid is crumpling to the ground. Everything stands still.

“Go. We’ll take care of them.” Fun Ghoul’s voice is muffled by the pounding in Party Poison’s ears. It sounds like he’s under water. The last thirty seconds keep playing over and over in his mind. _This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening._

“Poison!” Jet Star barks, “Go. You need to see how bad it is.” Poison nods, but he’s still trying to process what just happened as he jogs towards his hurt little brother, gun raised. He falls down to his knees beside Kobra Kid’s limp form just as the full implications of what just happened slam into him like a brick wall. 

“Kid!” He shakes his brother’s shoulders frantically. “Kid, are you with me? Please, you have to stay with me!” 

“Poison?” It’s weak and pained, but it’s there, and Poison almost collapses in relief. He strokes a few stray hairs out of Kobra’s face, feeling like an over-protective mother and not caring at all.

“Yeah. I’m here, it’s okay. You’re okay. We’re gonna get you back to the base, and they’ll fix you up. We’ll just-“ He’s cut off by a sharp laugh.

“I think i’m dying, Poison.”

“No.” He says gruffly. “Stop. You’re going to be fine.” He jumps a little as a hand lands on his shoulders. He feels himself being pushed aside. 

“Out of the way, Poison. Let me look at him.” Jet Star’s face is grim as he checks Kid over. “They got you pretty bad, huh?”

“Hurts.” The whimper is so out of character for Kid that Poison thinks he must be hallucinating this whole thing. It’s hot out in the zones; so hot that the air ripples and the dusty ground burns his knees through his pants. He clings to the desperate hope that this is just a hallucination. Hell, he’d take a drugged up haze over this. 

“Poison.” He ignores Jet Star and focuses on Kid’s shallow, laboured breathing. His panting swirls together with the fighting in the background to form a soundtrack of despair. “ _Poison!_ ” Poison swallows hard, then looks up. 

“He’ll be okay, right? He’ll be okay.” Poison knows he sounds like a determined little kid, but he refuses to believe anything else. He just _can’t_.

Jet Star bites his lip before shaking his head sadly. “Even if we got him back to the base, I don’t think there’s anything we could do.” He murmurs, close to Poison’s ear. “You need to let him go.” 

“NO!”

“He’s suffering, Poison! Don’t put him through this.”

“He’s my _brother!_ Call Dr D. There has to be something.” He’s conscious not to raise his voice above a pained whisper. He can’t bear the thought of his brother hearing the fate he’s been condemned to. Realistically, he knows there isn’t anything they can do. He always knew this was a possibility; he just never had the guts to think about it. It seems surreal now that it’s actually happening, like he’s watching somebody else go through it.

“I need to help Ghoul.” Jet Star says, shaking his head as he gets up. “He can’t hold them back on his own forever.” He hesitates before adding, “Put him out of his misery, Poison. You’re just going to draw this out.” He’s running off, firing wildly, before Poison can think of a response. He thinks about what Jet is asking him to do and he wants to sob. He knows he’s right. Kid is in pain and a slow death is going to be much worse, especially when Poison can deliver a quick, easy one. It would be cruel not to. The thing is, though, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to follow through. 

“What’s happening, Poison?” Kid’s voice is trembling a little, already exhausted sounding, and Poison feels his heart twist. He grabs his brother’s hand. 

“No.” He says gently. “We don’t need to do that right now. We can use real names, okay?” Kid nods and Poison moves a little so he can shift Kid’s head into his lap.

“Gerard.”

“That’s right,” He murmurs, stroking Kid’s hair. He can feel the sting of tears welling up in his eyes, but he refuses to let them drop. He’s the big brother. He needs to be strong. “I’ll be Gerard again, and you’ll be Mikey. You’re gonna be just fine.” He can’t help his voice from quivering a bit.

“We can read comics together, when this is all over.” Kid offers quietly. 

So they both know he’s dying, then. They’re both just indulging the other. Or maybe they both really need this.

“Sure. We can do everything. Whatever we feel like.”

“Can we find Mom and Dad, Gee?”

“Definitely. And everything will be just like it was before.” Even if Kid was going to be okay, Poison knows this would never be true. He’ll give it to Kid though, if it’s what he needs to hear. _It won’t matter, anyway._ he realises, and it feels like his ribs are swelling, trying to burst out of his chest. _Kid won’t be around to know._ He wipes a few tears off of Kid’s dust-caked face with his thumb, causing smudges of clean skin to appear on his cheeks. 

“Gerard?” Kid asks. He tries to twist upwards, but just ends up crying out in pain.

“Yeah?”

“Did we get them all? Did we save everyone?”

“Yeah.” He lies, the words bitter as they fall from his mouth. Tears are rolling freely down his cheeks now. “We got all of them. We’re the Killjoys, Mikey. No one can defeat us.” He laughs hollowly. 

“It hurts Gee.”

“I know. I know.” 

“I love you, Gerard.”

This is his cue then. He doesn’t know if Kid knows what he’s about to do, but he does know that he’ll embrace it. He’s suffering, like Jet said. It’s better for him like this.

He frames Kid’s face with his hands and leans down to press a kiss to his forehead. They don’t do things like this a lot these days. They used to be incredibly affectionate –to a point where some people found it weird- but whether due to aging or just the circumstances, they stopped. In this moment, knowing he'll never feel the heat of his brother’s skin against his own again, there’s nothing in the world he regrets more. 

“I love you too, Mikey. So much.” 

He swallows one more time, tracing the outline of Kid’s jaw with his fingertips, allowing himself one last moment with the one person who he’d gladly take this on for. His hand is shaking so hard that he can barely grip his ray gun. Slowly, like he’s trying not to startle him, he forces himself to raise the gun to Kid’s temple, brushing the hair away with his other hand. 

“I’m sorry.” He whispers. The scorching wind blows the faint words away as he grips the trigger and squeezes it firmly. 

He watches numbly as his brother goes still. He keeps playing with his hair, letting the gun fall to the ground. It feels like maybe if he waits long enough, the colour will spring back into his face, the eerie stillness replaced with the steady rise and fall of his chest. Poison stays like that until Ghoul comes over, sweaty and tired. 

“Gerard.”

“Don’t call me that.” Fresh tears stream down his face. It sounds so _wrong_ now, knowing he’ll never hear the name come out of his brother’s lips again. 

“Poison, then.” Ghoul’s voice is gentle. “Come on. I know you’re sad. I am too. But don’t let his death go to waste. He would want you to keep fighting.”

It’s only then that Poison is knocked for real out of his made up world where everything was okay and they had won. There was still a fight going on, he realised. People were still depending on him. He really wishes they weren’t. Then he wouldn’t have to feel bad about staying here and sobbing his heart out. Ghoul offers him a hand and pulls him up. 

“We’ll get someone to pick him up later.” He says softly, putting a hand between Poison’s shoulder blades and pushing him gently. “You did the right thing.”

Poison doesn’t look back at Kid’s cold body, because he really doesn’t want to think about when murdering your brother turned into the noble thing to do.


End file.
